Crew Cuts: Crew SC stays the course, finds openings in second half of 1-0 win over Minnesota United

Wednesday

Jul 5, 2017 at 1:35 AMJul 5, 2017 at 1:35 AM

Andrew Erickson The Columbus Dispatch @AEricksonCD

The Crew was in a scoreless tie with Minnesota United at halftime Tuesday night at TCF Bank Stadium, at which point coach Gregg Berhalter told his team to stay the course.

“At halftime the message was, ‘Listen, there are going to be a couple opportunities here that are going to open up early in the second half. We gotta go. We gotta go,’” Berhalter said. “We got the goal and towards the end of the game we also had the feeling.”

Crew SC’s gameplan Tuesday was to be compact and difficult to break down but also to find a way to open up with the ball and move quickly on the counterattack.

In the first half, a portion of that plan worked. Lalas Abubakar made his first start of the season and fellow rookie Alex Crognale made his first league start in more than a month and both played mistake-free soccer. Nicolai Naess injured his left ankle early in the game, but Josh Williams managed sub on in the 34th minute with limited warmup and contribute to a first half in which Minnesota did not score.

“That’s why Josh is around because he can do things like that,” Berhalter said. “He played a good game, he brought also leadership to the table. He did well.”

Berhalter said after the game that Naess will be evaluated further this week.

The four defenders combined for seven first-half clearances as Minnesota managed just one shot in the opening 45 minutes — a Christian Ramirez shot from the left side of the box that sailed high.

The front three of the Crew’s 3-4-3 formation reached the edge of the box on several occasions, but struggled to beat defenders one-versus-one and break through for clear chances on goal.

“I think in the first half we had opportunities to counter which we didn’t do successfully,” Berhalter said.

The defense weathered a nervy first 11 minutes of the second half, which featured an off-target shot from Ramirez in the 54th and a 56th-minute free kick from Ibson that required a save by goalkeeper Zack Steffen.

The Crew then put together the game’s only goal in the 58th minute by working quickly up the field. After Alex Crognale regained possession for the Crew near the top of the box, he found midfielder Mohammed Abu, who quickly dished to Trapp. The captain dribbled just past midfield before getting the ball to Kekuta Manneh in space. With a spin, a short dribble and a strong right leg, Manneh found the back of the net to give the Crew a 1-0 lead.

But it was after the Crew’s first goal that it managed to produce some of its clearest chances, ones that could have added to the lead and made for an easier final stretch. A large reason for the diversified attack was midfielder Justin Meram, who came on for Manneh in the 63rd minute.

Crew SC (9-10-1) produced 14 total shots on Tuesday, nine of which came while Meram was on the field. Ola Kamara, who benefitted significantly from Meram coming on, was in disbelief after missing wide right in the 73rd minute after Meram had delivered an excellent pass between two defenders. Five minutes later, Meram had two decent chances on a give-and-go play with Kamara but didn’t net either.

Still, the addition of arguably Crew SC’s best player on the dribble for a shortened stretch gave the Crew an attacking element as it tried to close out the game.

“To be able to bring a guy like Justin Meram into the game is a luxury and when he came into the game he had a number of opportunities that could have went our way,” Berhalter said. “He has the poise, he’s good on the ball, he can get the ball in pockets, he has a great understanding of how to play in that system, so it helped us. The conversation with him before the game was, ‘Listen, you can make a difference in this game.’ And he did, so it was good to see.”

Tuesday was yet another strong outing for Crew SC with three in the back. Berhalter has rolled out the structure three times this season, resulting in two shutout wins and a loss. In a 2-1 loss to Colorado, the Rapids scored two goals in the final 10 minutes after not scoring for the first 80.

“When you think about even Colorado, we had opportunities to get to 2-0 and they got extremely fortunate a couple times,” Berhalter said. “We can create chances. Today we should have scored more than one goal for sure, but it gives us a certain stability which is needed at times. So overall I think it is a weapon that we have that we’ll be using more.”

Where they stand

Atlanta United defeated the San Jose Earthquakes on Tuesday, meaning the Crew remains in sixth place in the Eastern Conference with 28 points. The New York Red Bulls are in seventh with 23 points and three games in hand. Orlando City SC is fifth in the Eastern Conference with 29 points in 19 games.

The Crew had 19 points through the first 20 games of the 2016 season.

Stoppage time

Crew SC does not play again until a Monday, July 17 friendly against Eintracht Frankfurt at Mapfre Stadium. The Crew will then have back-to-back games against the Philadelphia Union. … Crew players will have a short break before returning to training Sunday evening. … Tuesday marked Crew SC’s first 1-0 win since the Crew defeated the Houston Dynamo 1-0 April 23 of last year. … Manneh did not score in his first 376 minutes of his 2017 season. Over his last 113 minutes, he has two goals and an assist.